Roughly 15 years ago the bus for the Okanagan Sun football team broke down on the Connector en route to a game in Langley. When the replacement bus finally got our team to the game, our medical group had less than 30 minutes to get the team ready (it typically takes over an hour). Alex Recsky showed the true value of a professional athletic therapist. He was the key for the team that day. The former Calgary Stampeder’s A.T. had the team ready with 10 minutes to spare. Alex, now 92 years old, has been one of many who have helped me in my professional career, and while I can never get a full football team ready in 20 minutes, I do feel comfortable on the sidelines of each football game, thanks to his mentorship. As Terry Britton, a great colleague of mine once said, “Alex has forgotten more than I will ever know”.

Our business lives and dies from everyday people who want to keep active. The master’s athletes who want to do the Ironman or walk 18 holes of golf, the senior who wants to be able to keep in his/ her home and be able to climb the stairs and look after the garden, the person hurt in an MVA and wants to keep running his/her business as well as possible. It is from the help of so many mentors and medical colleagues that I have been able to look after these patients.

Kelowna has a phenomenal future in store. We have grown into a city which now attracts world class medical experts. From a sports perspective, we have more retired NHL, CFL, Olympic, and CIS athletes moving here every year. From a national health perspective, Kelowna was recently deemed as the “fittest city” in Canada. Once the Kelowna facilities “get up to speed”, this city will become a great hub for athletes and active people. We hope to contribute in a small way to their success.

My goal is to have our clinic be known as one of the most progressive clinics in the world. In a rapidly developing city, we need to “step up to the plate” and join the advancements of the city. With the help of orthopaedic surgeons, sports medicine physicians, physiatrists, neurosurgeons, UBC professors and students, coaches, parents, and the Kelowna public, our staff will be connecting with our community and the rest of the world to help guide the future of our profession. I am looking forward to this trip!